COGNAC-TON

Hennessy Bottle Catalogue (last updated: Nov 10, 2024)

(1159 full-sized bottles but still not complete; miniatures, mid-sized bottles, magnums, sleeves, hip flasks and more on separate pages)

  

Introduction

Hennessy was established in 1765, forty years after Rémy Martin and fifty after Martell, but they are by far the number one cognac company in de world and have been number one since 1891! They are now part of the LVMH-group. Hennessy is the company that first used the abreviation VSOP in 1817 and introduced the use of stars in 1865 as an indication of the quality of their cognacs and only a few years later the use of the acronym XO (Extra Old) in 1870. Their emblem is the arm with the axe.
They are not well known for their slogans, but one that is used frequently is ‘world’s most civilized spirit’ and derived from that: ’the civilized way to…’ followed by sentences that imply how to seduce a lady. More recently they are now promoting with: ‘What’s your wild rabbit’ and ‘never stop, never settle…’

Contents:

1. No indication, Three stars, Bras Armé and VS

— 1a. No indications
— 1b. Three stars
— 1c. Three stars and Bras Armé
— 1d. Bras Armé, high shoulder bottles
— 1e. Bras Armé, low shoulder bottles
— 1f. Three stars and VS
— 1g. VS, emblem in gold in front of the name “Hennessy”
— 1h. VS, emblem in red and gold
— 1i. VS, emblem in gold above the name “Hennessy”
— 1j. VS, others

2. Fine de Cognac

3. VSOP, VVVV, VO and SO

— 3a. VVVV, VO, SO and VSOP, cognaçaise bottles
— 3b. VSOP old wide tapered bottles
— 3c. VSOP Réserve and Grande Réserve
— 3d. VSOP, bottles with a neck emblem in a blob and an oval shoulder label
— 3e. VSOP wide tapered bottles, liqueur cognac and fine champagne
— 3f. VSOP wide tapered bottles, just VSOP
— 3g. VSOP new look 2023
— 3h. VSOP Privilege (not limited editions)
— 3i. VSOP flasks

4. Bras d’Or and Napoléon

5. XO and XXO

— 5a. XO Cognaçaise bottles
— 5b. XO, JAS Hennessy & Co.
— 5c. XO, emblem in front of the name Hennessy
— 5d. XO, no emblem on the label
— 5e. XO The Original, old glass adornments
— 5f. XO The Original, new glass adornments
— 5g. XO Grande Champagne
— 5h. XXO

6. Extra and Paradis

— 6a. Extra and XVSOP
— 6b. Paradis
— 6c. Paradis Extra rare and Paradis rare
— 6d. Paradis Imperial

7. Richard

8. Vintages

>> 9. Limited Editions and specials: separate page

>> 10. Miniatures, midsize bottles and magnums: separate page

1. No indication, Three stars, Bras Armé and VS

1a. No Indication:

        

1b. Three stars (the dates are best estimates):

Without Hennessy on a seperate label and with driven corks. 19th century till about 1910s:

          

With filigrain and Hennessy on a separate label below the main label, driven corks; estim. 1920s:

around 1924-1940, driven corks:

       

1934-1937, screw caps:

Capped corks with crimped foil. These probably started after 1937:

           

1940-1944:

    

With additional info below on the label, often information about the importer (1940s-60).

US bottles:

      

Italian bottles:

          

UK bottles:

     

Other countries:

     

Flasks:

Different shape of bottle, three stars with an armed arm, around 1960:

       

  

 

1c. Three stars and Bras Armé (transition period, ca. 1961-1965):

 

   

    

1d. Bras Armé, high shoulder bottles (ca. 1965-1972, except first one)

1da. Bras Armé with the logo running through the ‘s’ of bras armé:

         

1db. Bras Armé with the logo not running through the ‘s’ of bras armé:

            

1e. Bras Armé, low shoulder bottle (from ca. 1973)

– on the neck above the emblem: Maison Fondée en 1765, below: Bras Armé:

                 

– on the neck above the emblem: Maison Fondée en 1765, below: Fine Cognac:

 

 

1f. Three stars and VS (from late 1970s-80s):

            

With a red and gold emblem on top (1980-90s):

     

1g. VS, Emblem in front of the name Hennessy (1970-80s)

Very Special placed below Hennessy:

        

Very Special placed above Hennessy:

         

1h. VS with emblem in red and gold (second half 1980s).

     

1i. VS, emblem in gold above the name

1ia. VS is stated on the shoulder label above the emblem:

 

1ib. VS is stated on the shoulder label below the emblem:

     

1ic. VS is left off of shoulder label:

 

1id. VS, new bottle design: pininfarina (2013)
(Shoulder line is sharper and foot is more elegant; 1765 in the glass below the label)

       

1j. VS, Others

2. Fine de Cognac (from 2002)

[The fine de cognac series have a lot of different releases in which only the packaging is different; click on the bottles to see them]

Yellow label, Quality rare (started 2002):

       

White label (Started from 2010):

      

No label (2012):

Grey label (from 2014):

 

3. VSOP, VVVV, VO and SO, cognaçaise bottles

3a. VVVV, VO, SO and VSOP, cognaçaise bottles

Hennessy was the first house to use the abreviation VSOP. They started using it in 1817 for the cognacs they produced for King George V of England.
(V.O = over 15 years old and S.O over 25 years old.)

      

          

3b. VSOP old wide tapered models
starts in 1954 with the old familiar label and a crescent shape neck label

     

3c. VSOP Réserve and Grande Réserve

3c1. VSOP Réserve

3c1-1. VSOP Réserve, ecru labels (1964-70s):

High, slender bottles:

Lower bottles, label not divided by a line; some have grande fine champagne stated, others have maison fondée en 1765 or established in 1765:

          

       

Label divided by a line; some have grande fine champagne stated, others have established in 1765, most have crimped caps, some have screw caps:

 

              

Label divided by a very thin line:

 

  

3c1-2. VSOP Reserve, bronze coloured labels and a shoulder blob:

(series with emblem in front of the name Hennessy, mainly Asian market (around 1970s):

  

 

Series with emblem above the name Hennessy, produced mainly, but not exclusive, for the Asian market (around 1970-80s):

Two different bottle shapes were used, which are difficult to tell apart. One is a little higher with a more sloping neckline. The photo of the two bottles below serve to show the difference between the two.

With a shoulder blob:

      

Without a shoulder blob:

    

VSOP Reserve, black and gold labels:

3c2. VSOP Grande Reserve (1960-70s)

ecru labels, high shoulder:

Ecru labels, low shoulder:

  

Bronze coloured labels:

 

 

  

3d. VSOP, bottles with a neck emblem in a blob and an oval shoulder label (gold labels between 1977 and 1984, ecru labels from 1984)

Gold shoulder label holds two lines of text with ‘VSOP’ on top:

                  

Gold shoulder label holds two lines of text with ‘Cognac’ on top:

       

VSOP grande réserve:

Ecru labels, from 1984:

Shoulder label holds two lines of text, other than above:

     

Shoulder label holds three lines of text:

     

3e. VSOP wide tapered bottles, liqueur cognac and fine champagne (from 1989)

      

3f. VSOP wide tapered bottles, new design by Chris Bangler: somewhat longer neck and higher shoulder, Hennessy emblem embossed on the glass (design from 2012)

   

3g. VSOP new look 2023

 

3h. VSOP Privilege (from 1989)

3h1. Shoulder labels  state ‘VSOP’ or ‘VSOP Fine Champagne’ on a yellow background:

 

           

3h2. Shoulder labels state ‘VSOP Privilege Cognac’ or ‘VSOP Privilege’:

         

   

3h3. Shoulder labels state ‘Privilege’:

            

3h4. New design by Chris Bangler: somewhat longer neck and higher shoulder, Hennessy emblem embossed on the glass (from 2012); VSOP on a dark shoulder label, black capsules: 

                  
3h5. Privilege on a dark shoulder label:

 

3i. Flasks:

 

4. Bras d’Or and Napoléon
(Bras d’Or from 1955 till early 1970s)

4a. Bras d’Or on the shoulder:

   

from 1970:

 

from 1971:

    

 

from 1983:

4b. Napoléon on the shoulder:

There seem to be four different types of the logo: a small logo, a bit chubby medium logo,  a bigger and more slender logo and a logo in red and gold. Sometimes there is a second logo before the name ‘Hennessy’. 
Some bottles have bras d’or stated big on the label, the rest have a second mentioning of napoléon, sometimes with bras d’or too, but very small.
Some bottles have Napoléon written on the neck with an accent on the ‘e’ and some without it.

Logo high on the label with Bras d’Or printed on the label:

          

Logo high on the label, with Napoleon printed on the label:

 

Logo in front of the name ‘Hennessy’ and a small logo high on the label, Napoleon and Bras ‘d’Or printed on the label:

       

Logo in front of the name ‘Hennessy’, the logo is a bit bigger; Napoleon printed on the label:

 

Logo in red and gold, Bras d’Or printed on the label:

   

4c. Bras d’Or, cognaçaise bottles (1990-2002):

 

4d. Bras d’Or Napoléon limited édition:

5. XO (XO was first used in 1870, the first XO bottle was produced in 1888)

5a. Cognaçaise XO bottles:

               

5b. XO, JA´s Hennessy & Co. (the carafe was created in 1947 by Gerald de Geoffre de Chabrignac).

For this 5b-series with JA´s Hennessy & Co the following boxes were used:

            

                                     

5c. XO, emblem in front of name Hennessy (from ca. 1970s till early 1980s)

For this 5c-series with the emblem in front of Hennessy the following boxes were used:

   

5c1. cognac is stated above ‘Hennessy’:

                              

5c2. cognac is stated below ‘Hennessy’:

             

5d. XO, no emblem on the label (from ca. 1980s till early 2000s):

For this 5d-series with no emblem on the label the following boxes were used (gift packs with additional glasses are omitted):

               

0,7L bottles (crimped caps):

     

0,7L bottles (smooth caps):

                 

0,7L HKDNP bottles (and USDNP), crimped caps:

                 

0,7L HKDNP bottles (and USDNP), smooth caps:

      

0.75L bottles:

 

1 Litre bottles, crimped caps:

 

1 Litre bottles, smooth caps:

         

5e. XO the Original; vines underneath are intertwined and bottle has two bars left and right of the arm and axe emblem (from 2000s):

For this 5e-series of XO the Original the following boxes were used (gift packs with additional glasses are omitted):

        

           

5f. XO The Original; no bars left and right of emblem and different vines underneath (from early 2010s):

For this 5f-series of XO the Original the following boxes were used (gift packs with additional glasses are omitted):

    

                    

5g. XO Grande champagne (1998, 50th anniversary of the XO):

box used:

 

     

5h. XXO (started in 2018):

     

6. Extra and Paradis

Paradis followed after the Extra and was created in 1979.

6a. Extra:

Extra and VXSOP in cognaçaise bottles from 1923-1940s and in caraffes from 1948 till end 1970s.
(Old Extra’s were over 70 years old)

   

box of the VVXSOP:

 

Boxes of the Extra in ‘de Chabrignac bottles’ (1950-70s):

               

               

   

             

Nostalgie de Bagnolet Extra (1990s):

Box of Extra de Bagnolet:

 

 

6b. Paradis (created in 1979)

Quite a few variations exist in the use of the words paradis, extra and rare on the label and on the neck.

6b1. Paradis old models, with a neck label, thick gold coloured band at base of neck capsule (1st edition, 1979-1980s):

Box of the 1st edition bottles:

  

 

 

6b2. Paradis old models, with a neck label, thin gold coloured bands at base of neck capsule (2d edition, ca 1980’s):

Box of this second edition:

    

     

6b3. Paradis old models, with a neck label and the head of James Hennessy at the top of the main label (est. 1980-90s):

box of 12b3 edition:

 

               

6b4 Paradis old models, without a neck label (ca. 1990s):

      

   

       

6c. Paradis Extra rare and Paradis rare (from 2001):

6c1. Paradis Extra, rare cognac, metal stopper, red box (from 2001):

     

6c2. Paradis, rare cognac, metal stopper, green-brown box (from 2009):

     

Paradis rare cognac, 2d edition, glass stopper, beige box (from 2015):

        

6d. Paradis Impérial (created in 2011, purple box):

(design by Stéphanie Balini)

           

New design by Arik Levy (2019, in a trunk):

 

7. Richard (created in 1996)

1st edition with wooden stopper and a separate cristal stopper; some bottles made by Baccarat, some by the St. Louis cristallery; the opening of the box is in the shape of a wave and some boxes have a silk liner:

 

  

2d edition metal stopper and a separate cristal stopper; wine leaves engraved in the glass; Baccarat crystal; the opening of the box has a simple curve (until 2008):

             

Third edition: different neck and stopper, no engraved leaves in the glass; in a black box (released around 2008):

             

 

8. Vintages

                

Some Hennessy vintages. They were never very big on vintages. The first two bottles that are depicted here were probably never for sale on the market.